Leaflike
by Verboten Byacolate
Summary: Underneath the canopy of green, Tenten mourns love lost forever, and Hinata mourns the love that never exsisted. Clinging, crying, learning. :TenHina friendship, NejiTen, squintish NaruHina, forced Hyuugacest


_A/N_; So, remember that poll I did back in December, the one where nearly every voter wanted a TenHina friendship oneshot with NejiTen and NaruHina? I finally got around to that! -is shot-  
_Disclaimer_; Kishimoto's mother. (ooh, burn)

**Leaflike**

_Awaken, memories that I shut away on that day;  
__holding my head high,  
__I'll go out toward tomorrow  
_

_- 0 -  
_

A particularly harsh toss shoves the kunai four inches further into the thick tree than it should have. It will be hard to retrieve, but right now, she doesn't care, and sends the next one after it with a jerkier thrust, punctuated aim.

It is not her intention to scare the woman next to her.

"I… I'm so sorry, Tenten-san."

Tenten almost couldn't stomach to look at her companion. Hinata's head was bowed, her shoulders slumped in defeat, navy hair falling over her shoulders (so thin you could practically see the bones beneath her jacket). Tenten swallowed and looked back down at the third kunai in her hands, glinting up at her.

Serene, even though the world was falling apart.

"When?" the Jounin of nineteen asked, trying to mask the grief in her tone with nonchalance. It wasn't working, according to the tremor in those thin shoulders.

"Just a few months," Hinata replied softly, hands clasped (shaking like a leaf). She looked up, and Tenten could see the bright sheen of unshed sorrow—it made it hard to hold her own teary incentive back. The older woman stepped forward, over grass and soil that had meant nothing before, but were now priceless. The countless hours spent treading this precious earth with the one man she would ever truly love.

Hinata's fiancée; Hyuuga Neji.

Tenten's breath hitched as she took the girl I her arms, and with that gesture Hinata's dam broke, coloring Tenten's white blouse nearly ten shades darker with her tears.

"I'm so sorry," she said again, and the Jounin swallowed her remaining pride, gnawing at her lower lip, forcing herself to remain calm.

_I've already had him anyway. All to myself, for years. It's Hinata who's suffering; she hasn't yet gotten to know all of her love. I'm lucky. I'm lucky._

It didn't feel that way, though.

"I didn't want this," Hinata sniffed, burying her cheek into Tenten's shoulder.

"I know." There were hard days; bloodshed and bruises and almost losing hope.

"Father arranged it. The bloodline will stay pure with inbreeding, he says."

"I know." There were lazy days, few and far between, that he allowed an intimacy that was truly reserved for battle.

"I'm so, so sorry!" Hinata pressed the heel of her hand against her eye as if to stem the flow of pain. Tenten breathed.

"I know." There were days she took for granted; the ones that consisted of flu (chicken soup and feverish confessions), team bonding (drunken laments and slurred protests ((_"Put me down, Hyuuha Neshhi, b'fore I hafta kick yer pretty butt"_)), stolen moments (_"Tenten, why are you sharpening me kunai?" "It's your birthday, genius, and I'm broke_._" "Hey, why do you have his picture under your pillow and not mine?" "LEE, GET OUT!"_), and sullen concentration (_"Stop making that face, Tenten. You look like an old man." "But I can't decide, Neji! You choose; miso or beef ramen?"_). Days she would give her soul to relive.

But that right was no longer hers; it belonged to the trembling woman in her arms.

"There are some things you've gotta know if you're going to be Neji's wife," Tenten said, her voice thick. Hinata looked up questioningly, her tears shining as they trailed down pale cheeks.

"Tenten-san?"

"He's a merciless training partner," she continued, gazing upward through the thick foliage. Tiny bits of sun shone through and dotted the earth. This had been their haven. And now? "He'll drag you out for hours, even when it's hotter than Suna. He'll work you to the bone in the winter too, even when you can feel your toes falling off."

"Tenten…san?"

She tried to swallow again, but found that she simply couldn't. Her voice wavered. "But after," she said, "he will be uncommonly kind. He'll walk you home, and he'll make you hot chocolate when you can't walk anymore. He'll pick fun at the color of your ears and nose, and then he'll get a blanket and share with you." Tenten's smile was strained, and she didn't look back at Hinata.

"You'll be a slave to his schedule. You're going to be covered in bruises, but it will all be worth it. He is an amazing Shinobi." She loosened a fistful of Hinata's jacket that she didn't know she'd taken. "Just… love him." Leaves rustled overhead and a cool breeze surrounded the two with the fresh green scent. "That's what he needs."

"Tenten-san!" Hinata gave a sob and clutched Tenten tighter. "You can cry. Please cry," she said, her breath just as shallow as Tenten's was turning out to be. "I'm so, so sorry."

The days were gone that she could be so close to him. She had no chance of being more than a former teammate, a previous sparring partner. She was a friend, if he would still have her.

Gone were the times that she could have told him how she felt. How much she loved his voice, his hands, how the blue light of dusk made him seem more solid and true, and the way that the glow of fire carved shadows into every handsome dip and cavern of his face as he stared boldly into the flames.

She could cry for the times lost, and with good reason, but that was not why her cheeks were trailed over in _their_ clearing that day. She would not weep for time wasted, but rather, time she would never have.

"There's a lot to learn from him," she said soothingly, allowing herself to completely embrace her young new friend. Silently, and without Hinata's sweet-sounding tears, Tenten let her tears slip down. "I've already learned it. It's your turn, Hinata-chan."

_- 0 -_

_I'll open the door, and just keep moving forward  
For you, who gave me this love_

_- fin -  
_

**Lyrics: Sayonara, by Orange Range.  
****WAAAAH!! I almost cried writing this!! T,T I suppose I'm an emotional fruit that is especially immersed in the sadder part of writing, but I can't help it! And I'm sorry! This was a total 180 from the plot I first had in mind, which consisted of Tenten and Hinata in a café discussing their love lives. I realized that it was much too cliché and boring, and so I slapped down this depressing shit.  
****Reviews would cheer me up greatly. So please review, and excuse me while I sob my heart out at the possibility of this happening in the manga.  
****-Bya**


End file.
